Newport farmers market struggles to grow

Oct. 3, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Elle Mari, manager for the Newport Beach Farmers' Market, holds up a lottery basket of produce that is given away to one shopper a week. Mari also helps set up the market every Sunday and offers nutritional advice. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Regular customer Tony Rausa picks through the cucumbers at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market in the Lido Marina Village. Rausa also shops at the Saturday Costa Mesa farmers' market that features many of the same vendors. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Southern California-produced honey is available at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market. The event features a cross-section of produce and freshly prepared items. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Rena Dear and her two sons, two-year-old Vaughn and six-month-old Baron, sample a carrot at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER

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Three-year-old Jake Miyashiro takes a sample of a plum at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa. DREW A. KELLEY, FOR THE REGISTER

The last stone fruits of the season are on display at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market. The Sunday market draws a regular crowd of local customers. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Bell peppers are packaged for sale at the Newport Beach Farmers' Market and hold up a lottery basket of produce that is given away to one shopper a week. The event occurs every Sunday at the Lido Marina Village. EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Elle Mari, manager for the Newport Beach Farmers' Market, holds up a lottery basket of produce that is given away to one shopper a week. Mari also helps set up the market every Sunday and offers nutritional advice.EUGENE GARCIA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

NEWPORT BEACH – Tony Rausa has been hopping farmers markets in Southern California for 20 years – before organic food and eating local were trendy.

Rausa, 84, of Huntington Beach visits the local markets even when his refrigerator is full.

He's a self-proclaimed "farmers' market freak."

Along with his love of farmers markets, Rausa claims a love of cooking that he attributes to his Sicilian mother, who was brilliant in the kitchen. At an early age, he began to cultivate a love of good food and the community that surrounds it.

For Rausa, the Newport Beach farmers market is a dream come true. The market, in Lido Marina Village, recently partnered with bakery Le Pain Quotidien and will launch a chef-to-farmer series Oct. 14. The series will feature on-site demonstrations by chefs to help teach customers how to cook the produce they buy at the market.

Mark Anderson is hoping the new program will attract more Tony Rausas. A lot more.

For Anderson, president of the nonprofit Sprouts of Promise that runs the Newport Beach farmers market, loyal customers like Rausa are exactly what his Newport location needs. Along with the market in Newport, Sprouts of Promise runs the market at the SoCo shopping center in Costa Mesa and two other markets in Los Angeles County.

While Anderson's SoCo location on Hyland Avenue thrives, drawing an average 1,000 customers every Saturday, his Newport location, now two years old, can barely attract a sufficient crowd to keep it afloat.

Anderson attributes his Newport market's struggles to its location at Lido Marina Village, which has little visibility from the main road and few surrounding businesses to draw in new customers.

By including chefs' demos along with other forms of nutrition education, Anderson hopes to set his markets apart from the rest.

In Anderson's version of a farmers market, people don't show up just to check items off their grocery list.

BUSINESS SCHOOL

Anderson wasn't always a champion of local food and small farmers.

After a stint as an investment banker in Chicago, he came to California in 2000 for business school at UCLA. He started testing the tomato seeds for a hybrid seed-breeding company for which he'd just written a business plan. The next thing he knew, Anderson was helping sell the company's tomatoes at the Ventura County farmers markets.

For a while, he was just your average small-scale farmer with an MBA.

Anderson likes to say that his time farming and selling fresh heirloom tomatoes, known by some in the commercial food world as "the ugly tomato," helped open his eyes to the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. He realized that much of the food industry focused on the aesthetics of produce sold in supermarkets, rather than the nutritional value. Anderson came to believe that the farmers' market could be a place to inspire healthier habits and dispel myths surrounding our food.

With a newfound passion for healthful eating, Anderson started his nonprofit organization and its four farmers' markets.

By including nutrition education at his markets, he hopes shoppers will pick up some healthy living tips along with the produce.

In August, Jonathan Eng, 28, a baker from New York City, was booked for a chef's demo at the Lido location. Kids lingered at his station and watched him prepare the food, and shoppers meandered over. Some remarked they'd never thought about grilling pizza.

Just a bit down the cobblestone street, kids at the information booth peeked into a large wicker basket full of colorful fruits and vegetables. Those brave enough to answer a nutrition-related trivia question could pick a prize: zucchini, squash or a peach from the basket.

Newsletters and recipe handouts are available every week. And at the SoCo and Lido markets, chiropractors and fitness specialists set up next to the farmers to provide once-a-month health and wellness days.

"It's a whole new way of having a farmers market," says Anais Tangie, who manages the SoCo market. "Our ultimate goal is that people will flock to the market for a well-rounded, educational foodie experience."

LIDO STRUGGLES

Of Anderson's four markets, the Lido location might have been named "most likely to succeed" when he started it more than two years ago.

Nestled in a community with favorable demographics, the market offers free parking and picturesque views of Newport Bay.

Still, since conception, the Lido market has struggled. With no drive-by visibility, it's less likely to be stumbled upon by passers-by, Anderson said.

It's a far cry from what Anderson sees at SoCo, just 6 miles north.

About 1,000 shoppers hit the SoCo market, located in the middle of a shopping center. It also has more vendors and food trucks, which serve foodie grub at lunchtime and keep the shoppers – and their wallets – near the vendors.

At SoCo, Anderson and his team have cultivated something essential to the success of a farmers market – loyalty. The same shoppers, he says, turn out to the Costa Mesa venue week after week, guaranteeing sales and, over time, an expansion of the market.

At Lido, Anderson hasn't generated that vibe. And it's unclear if he will.

But he hopes the new farmer-to-chef program will do its part. With the help of Le Pain Quotidien, Anderson and his team will be sending out postcards and raffle tickets, as well as distributing flyers to advertise for the launch of the program.

POPULAR PATRON

At Lido, on a recent Sunday, Rausa saunters between stalls, peering around tent poles and making chitchat.

"How's it goin', boss?" a vendor yells as Rausa passes.

Another vendor, Jesse, plucks a sapote from his produce table and turns the green, sweet fruit in his open hand. It's like a pear, he explains to Rausa, who says he's never heard of a sapote. Jesse adds it to Rausa's bag, on the house, and rounds down to the nearest dollar.

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